Coolant

Hey folks.

I quickly need to preempt my question with an admission that I am not a very mechanical owner so i may appear a bit daft. I am enjoying the process of learning however.

That said, I am looking through the manual pre-ride checks and am getting to grips with all the necessities but i am troubled a little by the coolant issue; fortunately, the bike was serviced before I took delivery so I dont need to do anything drastic.

The manual shows that you take the seat off and then you can get easy access to the coolant filler cap to fill when necessary. No I cant. The filler cap is well and truly obscured by other structures and it appears to be impossible to remove the cap and to top up the coolant without removing the petrol tank, and as such, fairing, which would stop me doing this straight forwardly.

Secondly, why should I fill the coolant reservoir and not the radiator directly (which I might add is also covered by fairing and would be only slightly easier to fill). When I do get access, what is the standard coolant that I should use? Products available in the UK would be best.

Seems so odd that there must be a rational explanation. Over to the experts......:don'tknow::eyebrow:

what year is your bike? the 07+'s seem very easy, is there a chance that someone put a different radiator on your bike?

You can fill the reservoir if there is coolant in the bike, but if the radiator is empty then you cannot, if the rad is full then it will have vacuum pressure inside to pull coolant in from the reservoir, if empty then there is no vacuum.

I have always used standard coolant, but i know of a few people that sweat by a product called "Water Wetter" but i am not sure if that is available in the UK.

Its an 04. Next stupid question...

Is is simply a visual check as far as the rediator is concerned?

Elm, what a fabulous idea, hadnt thought of that.

Would be even better if I could get a flexible end to fit the syringe.

Thanks

So on the issue of the radiator. How would I check, in future, that it is full enough? I.e. is it merely a visual check and I should see fluid near the opening or is there an indicator? The manual isnt really clear in this regard.

The reservoir that is referenced (3) -- on my bike -- is the rear brake fluid reservoir. Perhaps it's different on your bike/year.

Ummmm

The coolant resivior is easily accessed behind the headers. It has a sight window, just use a flashlight and stay between low and high cold bike.

The coolant pressure cap on the radiator should be obvious. It has a orange sticker and is on the top of the radiator. Remove stay bolt and fill if if if the system is empty or you are changing the coolant.

If you put coolant in your brake resivoir you are doing a bad thing. LOL

Short answer. Look behind your headers as they come out of the engine. You dont have any reason to remove the seat or the tank.

Here are real live pictures man.

The black cover on the white bottle behind the header pipe is the overflow bottle.

The orange cap is the radiator cap.

wrightme43 said:

Here are real live pictures man.

The black cover on the white bottle behind the header pipe is the overflow bottle.

The orange cap is the radiator cap.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pics. I'm at work, otherwise I'd have either gotten a picture or a page from the manual. But that's getting directly to my point: I don't want someone adding coolant to their brake fluid!

I have an '04 Model and I have changed the coolant. With the bike cold,
you can remove the radiator cap and just look to see if it is full. I do not remember if there was a resevoir or not. It's been a couple of years now. I do remember it being tight getting your hand in there. The cap in on right side of the radiator, under the fairing area. I used motorcycle antifreeze from the yamaha shop, probably did not need the high price stuff, but did not want to goof up. I drained it by removing the lower hose and it just ran out
into a bucket. Used a small rubber hose and funnel to refill. Not a big deal.
The spark plugs are a real bear on an '04 however.

I am sure its just a typo Elm.

do you mean the UK naked has it behind and under the seat, or the UK faired has it behind and under the seat?

The US version has it only behind the header as all the bikes are the same here.

I looked at photos on the UK site and both of them seem to have it behind the headers but I could be wrong. Its hard to tell because the photos are not really of that area.

Elm said:

[COLOR=\\"DarkGreen\\"]All the S2 and European models have their coolant bottle located at the FRONT, behind the headers. All the US S models have their coolant bottles located under the fuel-tank [/COLOR]

Click to expand...

My US '04 has it under the tank towards the rear.